Michael Giacchino is one of only three movie composers that I know by name and can recognize elements of their work almost immediately1. The movie that really made me sit up and notice a Giacchino score was the 2009 Star Trek reboot – the cold open into space followed by the theme during the title sequence pulled me into a movie quicker than anything other than the Star Wars opening crawl had done before.

So when I heard that he had landed the part for Rogue One, I was excited.

On his YouTube channel, Sideways did a great job of showing how the Rogue One score was able to tie in work that John Williams did in the original trilogy while still standing on its own.

Because Rogue One was an anthology film and not a part of the main Skywalker Saga, Giacchino had the difficult job of cementing the score in the universe of Star Wars while being different at the same time. He was able deliver on both of those challenges while allegedly only having about a month from start to finish.

I want John Williams to keep composing for Star Wars for as long as he is able, but Michael Giacchino would be a worthy successor when the time comes.